What a delight to discover this gem, republished from 1912, at last! I've been waiting forty years to learn more of the Gibbelins and Gnoles, after first learning of them in Idris Seabright's short story "The Man Who Sold Rope to the Gnoles", which drew upon this wondrous book. More famous now perhaps, certainly in the RPG community, for having been one of H. P. Lovecraft's main influences, Dunsany's tales deserve to be read and appreciated in their own right. His rich use of language adds to the unsettling feel of what may seem at first quite light fantasy stories, an uneasiness many of the endings simply confirm. Inspirational!

I thoguht this sounded interresting, and I was right. I did not read all the stories. But, I did read the very last one "The Wonderful Window". Enjoyed it very much so. Quick read short stories, most a page or two.

If you're looking for a book with "fairytale endings", this isn't it. It's an interesting book, but most of the short stories are written without an obvious end. "The Quest of the Queen's Tears" is typical of these stories; if you were to tell it aloud to someone else, you'd be likely to hear a prompt of "And then...?" after you got to the end.

But if you're willing to work around that, and the somewhat archaic & flowery language, you'll find a book with interesting, original, stories. I think it's worth a read.